


My Hero

by naohime



Series: 𝔰𝔥𝔬𝔬𝔱𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔯 [2]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, Minor Violence, Non-Graphic Violence, Protectiveness, i can't really think of any other tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 07:00:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18360980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naohime/pseuds/naohime
Summary: Eveith always wondered why Cloud rarely stayed to watch her dance. Now, she realized it was probably for the best.





	My Hero

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on a roll with writing, aren't I? Maybe I should actually focus on writing my book rather than random drabbles, but oh well. It helps improve my already mediocre writing lol.
> 
> Also, I'm not really sure what age qualifies as an adult in this universe? So I went with the standard Japanese legal age of twenty. It's not really that important, though, just to explain Eveith's age at the beginning.

“I’ll have a whisky, Tifa,” Eveith said, leaning her arms on the counter. Tifa gave a single raised eyebrow, to which Eveith innocently smiled.

“You still have one year to go, Eveith. Then I’ll serve you alcohol.”

“Damn. I thought I had you tricked.” Eveith sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “All this dancing makes me thirsty, you know.”

“Do you want some water?”

“Sure, why not?” Tifa turned to fill a glass with water, and Eveith traced a circle in the varnished wood with her finger. As much as she appreciated the compliments bid to her after a dance, they tended to be overwhelming, and so she took refuge at the counter where no man dared to bother her with Tifa guarding her.

Tifa returned with the water, ice cubes floating idly upon its surface. Eveith sometimes envied them for their lazy days. “Thanks.” She chugged it down and slammed the glass on the counter when she was finished.

“Be careful with that!” Tifa scolded her, taking the glass from Eveith and wiping it down with a rag.

“I’m practicing for when I finally get to drink alcohol!” protested Eveith. “I see Cloud do it all the time.”

“Remind me to talk with him about that…” Tifa was very protective of her bar. It was her passion, just as dancing was Eveith’s. She could hardly fault the martial artist for that.

The door swung upon, its perky bell announcing a new arrival, and Eveith remarked, “Speak of the devil.” Cloud sunk into the stool next to Eveith, and Tifa prepared his signature drink. “You’re done early.”

“Deliveries weren’t far.” Cloud was curt, as always, but at least now he looked at her. When they had first met, what few responses he gave were never with direct eye contact. He scanned her perspired form. “Dancing?”

“Yup. Speaking of which, I better get back to that. It looks bad if all three of us hang out at the bar not working.” Eveith pushed herself away from the bar and sashayed towards the middle of the room, where the tables had been positioned in a circle. It was her makeshift stage, much less gaudy as the one in Sector 6. She liked it more, though. Sure, dancing kept eyes on her, but she wanted people to recognize the beauty and grace of the art, not just her body.

As the work day had ended over an hour ago, several new patrons had found their way to the bar since Eveith last danced. Tifa bustled to wait them. What convenient timing, Eveith thought. Now they would have a show while they waited on their drinks. The thought alone motivated her to entertain them.

In the midst of her dance, Eveith could’ve sworn she caught Cloud watching. For some reason, his attention made her nervous and she nearly stumbled over her feet. Embarrassment flushed her face, but she smiled even wider at her audience. She had never been caught off-guard this way when she danced; why was his sudden attentiveness startling to her?

When she ended her dance with a sweeping bow, Eveith kept her head and gaze towards the ground. The last thing she wanted to do was see if Cloud had spotted her mistake, or worse figured out that it was because of him. As she walked towards the bar, she was spared from facing the blond by a grip on her wrist. She turned to see a young man leering up at her, a lewd smirk disgracing his features. Though he was not unattractive, perhaps only a few years older than her, his crude expression put chills down Eveith’s spine.

“May I help you, sir?” she asked pleasantly. Upsetting one of Tifa’s customers was not on her to-do list, no matter how skeevy they were.

“That was a mighty great dance, sweetheart,” he told her. Eveith noticed with repulsion how his gaze wandered everywhere but her face. “Say, didn’t you dance on Wall Market back in Midgar?”

“Yes sir, I did. I danced at Rocco’s Tavern.”

He wagged his finger towards her in agreement, though part of Eveith suspected that he had remembered after all. “That’s what it was! I went there a few times myself. Great place. Shame it’s closed down now.” He grinned up at her. “But at least I found a part of it.”

Eveith wasn’t too certain how to respond. She glanced towards the bar with a pleading look in her eye, but Tifa was nowhere to be found and Cloud’s back was facing her. A twinge of hurt stung her upon seeing how the blond merely ignored her situation. Even though they weren’t as close as he was with Tifa, she had thought they had bonded over their trials last year.

“I always asked ol’ Rocco for a private dance, but he always turned me down. Said some bullshit about the competition.” Venom laced the man’s tone, and Eveith resisted the urge to flinch at his sudden hostility. However, his voice regained its former sultry timbre, and he placed a daring hand on her hip, curling his fingers around her flesh. “Well, seeing as there’s no competition, why don’t you give me a dance, eh? I’ll even pay extra for something more—”

What happened next transpired so quickly that Eveith’s mind couldn’t comprehend it. The first thing she heard was the sound of one of the bar stools scraping against the wooden floor before tumbling to the ground, and the second was a sickening crack of a fist against jaw. Eveith blinked in disbelief. Cloud loomed threateningly over the man who cradled his swollen mouth from the ground.

“Cloud!” Tifa shouted from the bar.

“What the fuck is your problem?!” the man yelled. Though his eyes burned with anger, he knew he was clearly outmatched by Cloud.

“Don’t talk to her like that or touch her ever again,” Cloud told him, seething rage causing his normally calm voice to tremble. Glancing down, Eveith noticed that the trembles spread to his clenched fist. “If I see you around here again, I’ll do much worse than this.”

The man said nothing, but scrambled to his feet and stormed out the door muttering expletives under his breath. The bar was silent and frozen, as if stuck in time, until Tifa cleared her throat. The rest of the patrons reluctantly returned to their conversations, but occasionally eyed Cloud warily as if he would strike them next in a fit of rage.

Cloud turned to look at Eveith, his eyes softening upon seeing her rattled expression. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but decided against it and instead retreated towards the bar. Eveith stood, shocked, speechless. She could hear Tifa reprimanding Cloud with a low, menacing tone while the latter simply said nothing. Eveith raised a shaky hand to her face, checking her senses, seeing if what was present was real. She was both relieved and humiliated.

A hand gently touched her shoulder, and Eveith let out a squeak. Tifa gave her an apologetic look and said, “You can end early tonight, if you want. I’m sure you’re tired.” She was kind not to mention the whole ordeal, but Eveith found it more embarrassing to hide away than to face her customers. Eveith moistened her lips and shook her head.

“I’ll be fine. Th-thank you, Tifa.” Eveith winced when she heard herself stutter. Tifa looked uncertain, but she nodded and returned to her post.

The rest of the night, Cloud did not look at her.

* * *

As soon as Tifa closed the bar, Eveith retired to her room for the night and curled up into a ball on her bed. She was at a loss for words and thoughts. What was she supposed to gather from that? She had never once seen Cloud act upon his temper like that. Sometimes, Eveith wondered if he even had a temper, with how aloof he normally acted. To label the events of the day as bizarre was an understatement.

A soft knock at her door roused Eveith from her thoughts, and she hopped off of her bed to greet her visitor. She suspected it was Denzel or Marlene. Though they stayed upstairs during bar hours, they were certain to have heard the commotion. Perhaps they even snuck down to see what had happened, and now they were wanting answers from Eveith herself.

When she opened the door to look down at her youthful guests, Eveith stared at a pair of legs. She slowly raised her gaze to meet the Mako blue eyes of her savior himself.

“C-Cloud,” she said, cursing herself for once again stammering. It wasn’t that she was afraid of him or anything; she was just shaken up by his actions. She knew she should be grateful, but part of her was confused as to what triggered such ire from him. “It’s late…Did you need something?”

It seemed that when he knocked on her door he had not thought through what he was going to say, because he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, eyes searching for words on the floor. “I…wanted to see how you were doing. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

“What…? Oh! No, you didn’t scare me. I-I was just taken aback, that’s all,” Eveith assured him. She rubbed her arm nervously. “I didn’t thank you earlier. Thank you.”

“...You’re welcome,” Cloud said, hesitating. “If you’re all right, then…I should be going.”

“W-wait!” Eveith grabbed his wrist, but when he looked down at her hand, she quickly retracted it with a blush. “S-sorry. I…I just wanted to know why.”

“Why?”

“Why you did it. I mean, yeah, he was gross, but he’s a customer. I’m sure Tifa wasn’t too happy.”

Cloud chuckled. “She wasn’t. But I don’t think she was pleased with how he was treating you, either.”

Eveith averted her gaze to the ground. Cloud noticed her sudden change in mood and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Oh. Well…I didn’t like how he was talking to you. When I looked over my shoulder and saw him touching you, I guess something snapped.”

A strange emotion soared in Eveith’s chest, one that she couldn’t identify. Now that she had heard his answer, it all made sense. There was no other explanation as to why he would assault a customer, especially one of Tifa’s. It made her happy for some odd reason.

“Eveith.” Eveith tensed at the seriousness in Cloud’s voice. “If someone bothers you like that, you don’t have to let it happen. Yeah, it’s a customer, but you still have the right to be safe.”

“It’s…a bad habit, I suppose. Men always pestered me like that on Wall Market, but I couldn’t reject their advances. I risked losing my job as a dancer.”

A warm hand clasped her shoulder. “You don’t have to worry about losing your job here.”

Though it was an otherwise innocent statement, Eveith sensed the true meaning behind his words. Cloud cared about her. He wanted what was best for her. That was why he had defended her.

Eveith smiled. “Thank you, Cloud. I’ll try to stand up for myself in the future.”

Cloud gave an approving nod, and returned his hand to his side, somewhat abashed. He coughed into his hand and said, “Good night, Eveith.”

She fought the urge to giggle at his sudden meekness. “Good night, Cloud. Sweet dreams.” As Cloud turned to leave, she remembered something and called out, “Oh, wait!”

“What is it?”

Eveith stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his cheek. A crimson blush blossomed where she had kissed him, and this time she could not hold back her laugh. “That’s for saving me, hero.”

**Author's Note:**

> It's so much easier to publish these when I don't have to keep looking back at the original draft to see if I have any italics or bold.


End file.
